What I Drew Sunday, March 28th - Top 3

 Last Sunday’s session of drawing other folks’ suggestion went a bit slower than my usual What Shall I Draw Today? session. I produced 6 sketches over the eight hour period. At the start of the day, I had made the pronouncement that I might stop early if I reached 12 sketches in order to turn my attention to household chores. Well, those chores had to wait until the official end of WSIDT.

Here are the top 3 liked pieces from Sunday:

#1 - Steamboat Willy as a Jungle Cruise Skipper: suggestion by Mike C.

Story time- although the Disney short is famously the first to feature synchronized sound, it’s not much on dialogue. As such, it’s ambiguous as to which actor is the titular character. Is it Mickey? Is it Pete? Is it in fact the name of the steamboat itself?  I’ve not seen any documentation to definitively clarify the point. I opted to keep Pete as the captain/skipper.

For reasons that escape my armchair analysis, the Disney Parks’ Jungle Cruise attraction, seems to have popped up frequently among the WSIDT suggestions. I think more than “Pirates of the Caribbean” and more than the “Haunted Mansion.” As such, I wanted to draw a part of the attraction that I hadn’t previously, and decided to feature the African Bull elephant. I remember having drawn, the safari chased up a pole by a rhinoceros, piranhas in the water, the elephant bathing pool and Trader Sam. Another half dozen Jungle Cruise suggestions and I’ll have to tackle the back-side of water.

If I were to do a second take on this sketch suggestion, I might be moved to depict the whole steamboat in the rivers of the attraction.

6x hidden Mickeys.


#2 - Harley Quinn at a Roller Disco with Scooby-Doo: suggestion by @alltookayleigh

There’s no clear connection linking these two characters, so they must be two of somebody’s favorite characters.

Scooby-Doo must be one of the top non-Disney characters that I draw for WSIDT if you include mashups with Scooby and the gang. With every successive Scooby that I draw I feel that I’m getting better.

The reflected spots of lights on the floor didn’t remove as well as I had hoped. A second regret is that I should have added more spots to the back wall, even if the ones on the floor weren’t ideal.

Harley Quinn is based on the model from her animated series. A lot of times I default to original Batman the Animated Series version if not otherwise prompted. I felt like shining a suggested spotlight on the DC Universe series.

#3 - Tigger meets June from “Little Einsteins”: suggestion by @elijones94

I’m a bit outside of the demographics for the “Little Einsteins” television series. A minute with a YouTube video of the series informed me that June likes to dance, and that’s all I needed to know for a drawing.

I tweaked the way I drew June so that her facial features were more Disney-fied.

In pairing June with Tigger, I imagined that she could possibly be shorter than Christopher Robin- maybe not quite up to his chin. And I think Tigger is no taller than waist-high compared with C.R. So, maybe a standing Tigger would be up to June’s chin?

Anyways, Tigger’s dancing would just devolve into a form of bouncing. More and more I like emulating “The Family Circus” style trail of ribbon based dashed lines, even if it’s not associated with a character like Tigger.

1x hidden Mickey.


Here are the rest of the 3 drawn on Sunday:

Zuko and Suki on an adventure with Appa
Suggestion by @nikkistar5394

Venomized Huey, Dewey and Louie
Suggestion by @cyberknight6196

Beverly Sutphin (Serial Mom)
Suggestion by @mannysmyname

All of these are currently not for sale, as I continue to build up a stock of original art to sell at future, T.B.D. comic convention showings.

The next WSIDT session is happening in April 25th. This one will  be “Star Wars” themed. In stating that now, I wonder if half of the suggestions with be Mandalorian and/or “Baby Yoda” centric.

Thank you to everyone who pitched their fun drawing suggestions. Thank you for following my blog and/or Instagram (@Monstergram7) and/or Monster Enterprises Facebook page. Thank you for liking. 

All: Black ink and color pencil on Bristol Board.

“Steamboat Willie” & “Harley & Scooby”: 12.70 cm x 17.78 cm (5.00 in. x 7.00 in.)
“Tigger and June”: 8.89 cm x 6.35 cm  (3.50 in. x 2.50 in.)

What I Drew Sunday, February 23rd - Top 3

The top three liked pieces form last Sunday’s WSIDT clearly emerged within the first 6 hours following the posting of the session’s last sketch. However, the placement of each was too close to call. I then hoped that the totals would more clear separate themselves after 48 hours. Now, here are the standings of the top three liked pieces drawn on Sunday.

#1 - Freddie and Celia Facilier from "Descendants" with their Dad, Dr. Facilier: suggestion by @harishas.art

If you aren’t familiar with Disney’s Descendants franchise, then all you need know regarding this piece is that it focuses on the teenage children of the heroes and villains from Disney’s animated fairy tales. Those kids just so happen to have names that are derivations of the names of their respective famous (or infamous) parents.

Across the Disney Channel original movies, cartoons and products, Freddie and younger sister Celia have been introduced as the daughters of Dr. Facilier from The Princess and the Frog.

Since I had make up this scene, not being familiar with any published or aired story, I just played on the stereo-typical father-teen daughter interplay: the daughter wants pretty new things, but the father isn’t going to give her money for it.

I usually try to go sans word balloon on these sketches, but in this case, the joke wasn’t going to convey well. If the girls were holding dresses and jewelry, then I couldn’t think how to show that they were shopping without drawing more stuff (racks price signage, etc.) and I like drawing backgrounds less than I like inserting word balloons for WSIDT sketches. The picture word balloons came to mind beginning with the crossed-out dollar sign for Dr. F. I now figure that I must have been channeling something from Sergio Aragones in MAD magazine. Not being satisfied with that, or for the desire to depict dialogue, I first thought to have the sisters share a balloon with the word “Please?” That turned into little dress and necklace icons as I laid out the sketch.

As the top liked piece, I guess it worked.

#2 - Harley and Ivy from the DC Universe animated series: suggestion by @sdogg52

This “R” rated animated series is pretty good. 

However, suspecting that a large percentage of folks haven’t watched it, with it existing behind the DC Universe streaming paywall, what you need to know is that Harley Quinn (the pig-tailed blonde) stars with her best friend Poison Ivy (the Red-head in green). The character of Harley Quinn is often depicting in comics and in other media as fourth-wall breaking - that is, talking directly to the audience.

Eschewing any actual story points from the series, this then plays as a piece of fourth-wall-breaking marketing. The most effective part, I suppose, is the large, up-close head of Harley. Her shadowed hand in the top-right corner hints at her leaning against a window or camera lens.

Ivy is supportive as she is in the series, but also patiently waiting for Harley to run-through her wacky bits of action to then get on with the more serious work at hand - as she does in the series.

Here, I do my best to follow the designs from the series per the suggestion, rather than take a stylized route.

#3 - Wonder Woman carrying Thor’s hammer: suggestion by @rayisprettycool

Wonder Woman, here, was one of the few single character suggestions pitched for this session of WSIDT, which played perfectly as the last sketch of the day. As it happened, I used the same “Who is worthy to carry the hammer of Thor” gag with the first sketch (done the night before) with Super Grover meeting the Avengers. With Wonder Woman, it is played not as a gag but fairly straight, as if the hammer were just another piece of her arsenal.

I made some tweaks in her costume design, but it is for the most part the costumes that Gal Gadot wears in the DC films. The braided hair, perhaps, is the most divergent part of her look.

I drew a kind of Celtic knot on the side of the hammer head – just because I thought it blank and lacking.

The rest of the story in the image relies on the audience’s knowledge of the hammer’s enchantment, say, mostly from the Marvel Thor and Avengers movies. 

Fortunately, most folks seem to agree that Diana is worthy to carry the hammer.

Here are the rest of the 9 drawn on Sunday:

Chidi having lunch with Immanuel Kant

Suggestion by @snowpuppet

Super Grover hanging out with Marvel superheroes

Suggestion by @breezie_draws

Margot Robbie and Harley Quinn sharing a bowl of Froot Loops

Suggestion by @jazzatron5000

Leni Peakitten meets Tigger

Suggestion by @thefurmaster78

Chip and Dale meet Trader Sam

Suggestion by Mike Campbell

Mandy & Red (Mandy)

Suggestion by @that_browncoat

All of these and more original piece of art will be for sale at my booth at WonderCon, Anaheim, CA in April. Speaking of WonderCon, preparations for which will restrict my time to address any left-over suggestions before then. You can always suggests them again.

The next WSIDT session is scheduled for Sunday, March, 29th. It will probably be a “Disney Day” for suggestions.

Thank you to everyone who pitched their fun drawing suggestions. Thank you for following my blog and/or Instagram and/of Monster Enterprises Facebook page. Thank you for liking. 

All: Black ink and color pencil except “Mandy” which was color pencil.

“The Faciliers” on paper. 12.70 cm x 17.78 cm (5.00 in. x 7.00 in.)

“Harley and Ivy“  on Bristol Board. 6.35 cm x 8.89 cm  (2.50 in. x 3.50 in.)

“Wonder Woman” on watercolor paper. 12.70 cm x 17.78 cm (5.00 in. x 7.00 in.)

What I Drew Saturday, August 17th – Top 3

I slated last Saturday’s What Shall I Draw Today? (a.k.a. WSIDT) as “DC Comics Day.” The suggestions did not disappoint.

Here are the top 3 liked piece of the day.

#1 - Lynda Carter and Gal Gadot:  suggestion by @mannysmyname

Since it was “DC Comics Day,” of course these two are depicted in their respective Wonder Woman costumes. The art is a bit caricatured, which is a safety net for if I fail to quite capture the likenesses in given the time pressure that I place on myself.

I chose the limited palette of black ink and red pencil, in part, because there was something I found interesting in the initial red pencil drawing. 

Placing the two woman at different levels, doesn’t play as compositionally interesting as I has hoped. Ms. Gadot, unfortunately, just appears short.

This was my first attempt to draw Ms. Carter. This may be the fourth attempt that I’ve tried to draw Ms. Gadot’s likeness, caricatured or not, and I’ll say that I’m getting better.

#2 - Jessica and Roger Rabbit: suggestion by @anthony.helmer

As the singular non-DC Comics piece of the day, this suggestion was a tribute response to the news of the death of animator and director of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Richard Williams. The suggestion presented the option one of the other, but there is always more story opportunity when you have at least two characters to work with.

To my recollection and at least to recent memory, this is the first time that I’ve drawn the couple, rather than either alone. Regardless of the occasion, I think these are my best drawings of either Jessica and Roger to date. I think I’m more comfortable with their designs enough to stray away from literal copies of movies stills and infuse them with a bit more design refinement – things like balance, line of action and clarity of silhouettes.

Many of my tributes to the more behind-the-scenes talents, focus on the beloved characters and creations rather than portrait drawings or caricatures. It’s pretty much implying, “if you like these (characters), then you’ll care to remember the life and work of this person who helped create and bring them to you.’’

#3 - Supergirl and Harley Quinn: suggestion by @vidarapotor394

As an addendum to the suggestion was “Maybe they can have Starbucks or something?” Not wanting to put more brain power in to it than necessary, the two are at a coffee shop. The logo is, however, inspired by the Starbucks logo, featuring instead a stylized Mera.

Not being a coffee drinker myself, I took the opportunity to have one of them, Supergirl here, enjoy some doughnuts instead. It was a choice of either doughnuts or ice cream. 

Compositionally, once I decide to have Supergirl’s cape blow in the wind in a specific directions, then other things like hair need follow. It was fortunate, then that Harley’s pigtails didn’t have to be drawn across her face to the left. Her pose and position wasn’t planned to allow space for back-swept pigtails.

It’s interesting to try to track which ones receive the most likes. Early on, both “Tom and Jerry” and “Morpheus and Death” were in among the top 3.

Her are the remaining 6 of the 9 sketches:

Tom and Jerry as Batman and Robin

Robotman (Doom Patrol)

Morpheus and Death (take #1)

Morpheus and Death (take # 2) on a Beach (following to the suggestion)

Static (Static Shock)

Amethyst

All original pieces of art to be sold at my next tabled convention appearance - CTN Expo, Burbank in November.

The next WSIDT is scheduled for Sunday, September 29. It will be last WSIDT of the year.

More drawings posted on my Instagram feed, @monstergram7.

All  Black ink and color pencil:

“Wonder Women” on paper. 12.70 cm x 17.78 cm (5.00 in. x 7.00 in.).

“Jessica and Roger” on Bristol Board. 6.35 cm x 8.89 cm (2.50 in. x 3.50 in.).

“Supergirl and Harley Quinn” on watercolor paper. 12.70 cm x 17.78 cm (5.00 in. x 7.00 in.).

What I Drew Sunday, September 23rd - Top 3

At comic book conventions, the top DC Comics characters that I draw as commissions are Harley Quinn, Wonder Woman and Supergirl. That did not play out the same in the suggestions folks pitched for last Sunday’s What Shall I Draw Today? all DC Comics-themed session.

Here are the top 3 liked things that I drew that day:

#1 — Burnside Batgirl Babysitting the Teen Titans Go! (suggestion by @haightstreetgirl)

Right off the bat (no pun intended), I was hesitant to draw this six character scene - when one of my goals is to produce as many drawn pieces as I possibly can in the set 8-hours of the session. Obviously, I felt it an interesting enough idea to go ahead and take it on. 

So what kind of babysitter would Batgirl be? Responsible - yes. Studious - yep. Strict - maybe to take the task seriously, but maybe lenient on the hero-ing stuff. And how would the TTG! react to being baby sat by another teen? 

So I contrasted Batgirl with Batman- The Animated Series proportions making her appear more grownup. This allows for antics of Beast Boy trying to escape retaliation for swiping Raven’s cape and hood, that, while in keeping with TTG!, comes off as childish. Cyborg is caught in the cross-fire. Robin is either antsy for not be able to leave when he would like or is trying to impress Batgirl with his maturity. Strarfire attaches herself to the sitter with a million questions.

To help off-set the minimal background, it’s inked with a uniform line contrasting the brush strokes used on the characters.

#2 — Krypto the Superdog and Ace the Bat-Hound as Puppies (suggestion by @akoymdf)

This is an imaginary story because we all know that Krypto was a grown Kryptonian dog when he landed on Earth in the test rocket Jor-El had placed him.

Borrowing the puppy designs of Disney’s animated One Hundred and One Dalmatians, I went for something cute. Story-wise, I landed on the conflict of Ace being less than a match to Krypto on a physical level, and Ace’s resulting frustration. I chose not to outfit them with their respective tell-tale capes, figuring that neither has grown into their roles as canine sidekicks to the world’s finest super-heroes.

#3 — Batgirl and Harley Quinn Going Out for Tea (suggestion by @stariie5829)

This is the second idea that I drew on Sunday that featured Batgirl. There were, in fact, four suggestions featuring Batgirl. I guess she was trending.

I went with Batman: The Animated Series inspired costumes if not accurately depicting their animated designs. I also tweaked the story to “having tea” rather than “going out for tea” because I thought the former had the telling teapot and tea cups. I also thought the latter would have been more about dress-up and/or a walking pair of women which could very well be going shopping or to send off a cruise ship.

The next decision was to choose Batgirl over Harley for pouring the tea. I didn’t think that Batgirl would at all trust Harley to pour ANYTHING. In turn, Harley is suspicious of what’s in her cup because she wonders what could Batgirl possibly sneak in the liquid - because that’s what she herself would do. That or she just suspects the novelty of the whole setup.

Here are the rest of the 10 pieces drawn:

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Black Adam

Raven (in the style of Bill Watterson)

Ragman

Barry and Iris from The Flash

Halo (top) and Looker from The Outsiders

Supergirl, Green Arrow and The Flash

Scooby-Doo and Wonder Woman

All ten of these sketches are going into the collection of original art for sale at my table at whichever comic convention I first show next year, 2019. That could be WonderCon, Anaheim.

Please checkout my Instagram feed for these and more: @monstergram7

This was the last WSIDT session of the year. Time for me to start thinking about Christmas card making.
Left over suggestions may be drawn and posted at anytime before the end of the year.


THANK YOU for your clever suggestions, for following and for the likes and support.


All art Black ink and color pencil on Bristol Board. 
Batgirl & Teen Titans GO! - 17.78 cm x 12.70 cm (7.00 in. x 5.00 in.)
Krypto & Ace - 6.35 cm x 8.89 cm (2.50 in. x 3.50 in.)
Batgirl & Harley Quinn - 8.89 cm x 6.35 cm (3.50 in. x 2.50 in.)

Quinney Con Harley

Harley Quinn (Suicide Squad (2016)) juggling a few lit bombs. She’s dangerous enough without the bombs.

Some times during a comic convention, especially on a Sunday, I don’t have much to do other than draw any thing I want. The caveat is that in the end I’ll have a drawing that I’ll hopefully want to sell.  Alternatively, it will be a drawing that I hope some will want to buy. So “any thing” ends up narrowed to a short list of things that I sold in the past. Harley Quinn, in all her costume iterations, has always been on the short list since I’ve been doing comic conventions.

The juggling comes in because, at the time, why not?

Black ink and color pencil on Bristol Board.
22.86 cm x 30.48 cm (9.00 in. x 12.00 in.)

Harley Quinn © and TM DC Comics.

The Joker of the Club Made for You and Me

Color pencil and black ink on Bristol Board.  

6.35 cm x 8.89 cm (2.50 in. x 3.50 in.)

2016

From a suggestion submitted during one of my “What Shall I Draw Today?” sessions, this DC Comics / Disney mash-up was one of the top 9 liked posts on my Instagram, @monstergram7

As some mash-up ideas come to be, this is The Batman villains The Joker and Harley Quinn dressed as Disney’s perennial Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse I’ve drawn more or less in the style of early seasons Batman: The Animated Series animated TV series (1992).

At least Harley’s red, black and white costume could accommodate Minnie’s often seen white polka dots on red motif. With The Joker, he’s pretty much unchanged except for Mickey ears and a tuxedo color close to Mickey’s of the Disney theme parks.

I think these two dressed this way looks like it could have been a visual gag or Easter Egg snuck into an episode.

[The Top 9 of 2016]

Twistery, Inc.

Gotham Rogues/ Scooby-Doo mash-up
Black ink and color pencil on Bristol Board.
21.6 cm x 27.9 cm (8.50 in. x 11.00 in.)
2016

Taking as a cue its singular achievement of receiving more than 1,000 “likes” on Instagram (@monstergram7) in two days, I’m discussing this mash-up drawing with a good scan of the piece.

Instagram follower alltookayleigh suggested the combination for the September 25th session of “What ShallI Draw Today?” Sharp-eyed followers will have long realized that some suggestions that do not get attention during WSIDT, may appear in the weeks following until the suggestions list is cleared for a new WSIDT. First, a pre-colored, inked version was posted Sunday morning for InkTober, followed a few hours later by this final version.

The characters match ups was left to my own devising. I don’t spend a lot of time on such decisions, so you may have better selections given more time to think about it. Any ways, here’s what I drew:

• To help stick the “Batman” half, I chose the slick, later Batman: The Animated Series character design style. What Batman fan doesn’t like that style? As applicable, the costume colors are inspired by those of the respective the villain characters.

• For the “Mystery, Inc.” a.k.a. “Scooby-Doo” half, the composition is based on the second group shot that came across in a Google image search. Also, most of the costume silhouettes are the same as the Mystery, Inc. crew.

• The Joker/ Freddie Jones - One leader as another leader. The only one not agape at whatever could be the off-screen threat. I figured that Joker would just laugh at it.

• Harley Quinn/ Daphne Blake - Harley is a must-have, and her Daphne is a pretty good match for a Joker/ Freddie. I added a flashlight not present in the inspiration art, just to give Harley something to do. She gets to keep her Harley cap. Being able to take checker-board color cues from Harley’s costume, her palette can be more like Daphne’s

• Poison Ivy/ Velma Dinkley - It was either Poison Ivy or Catwoman, Ivy wins out for not wearing a head and face covering mask. Did Pamela Isley wear glasses? Her costume departs from Velma’s with Ivy’s bare legs and styled boots.

• Two Face/ Shaggy Rogers - Two Face is a quick, shoot from the hip selection. If I could have thought of a better match five seconds later, then I would have drawn that. Being in the back, it’s difficult to make out at first glance the split color scheme on his shirt and pants.

• Clayface/ Scooby-Doo - What are the animal choices: 1) Killer Croc; 2) Man-Bat; 3) umm...? Neither of those look like dogs of any sort. Then consider that Clayface can actually transform into Scooby, and he’s brown!  That’s either clever or it’s a cheat.

To date, a post surpassing 100 “likes” is pretty good on monstergram7. More than 200 “likes” is a record contender. More than 1,000 is an unexplained phenomenon. It was posted with a lot of hash tags: #Batman, #ScoobyDoo, #Joker, #HarleyQuinn, #BryanMon and #ScoobTober. I guess I should stop underestimating the popularity of Scooby-Doo.

InkTober is a challenge to post at least one new inked drawing for each of October’s 31 days. There are daily topic prompts, but I think most folks just freestyle there topics. This mash-up doesn’t align with any prompt list.

So you see what can come of a clever drawing suggestion during a WSIDT session?


[The Top 9 of 2016]

monstergram7 - July & August 2016

Well, I’ve maintained posting pretty regularly at a rate of no fewer than six times a week on Instagram during the summer months of July and August. The end-of-the-month “What Shall I Draw Today?” sessions are definitely helping me build up an original art stock to sell at my few comic book convention showings.

If it’s true that there’s an audience for everything, then the random WSIDT suggestions may meet those demands.

You can check out my Instagram feed, a.k.a. monstergram7, here:
https://www.instagram.com/monstergram7/

Long Beach Comic Con - 2016

Monster Enterprises presents

Bryan Mon and Merrill Hagan

return to 

 Long Beach Comic Con 

September 17 & 18, 2016

Long Beach Convention Center

300 E. Ocean Blvd.

Long Beach, CA 90802

Yes, it’s truly happening. We’re off of the waiting list and into a table in Artist Alley.

Table P5 (map/layout to come).

Harley Quinn
(commission, LBCC 2015)

The 2-day con is now about 3 weeks away, and up until then I will accepting a limited number of pre-order commissions for pick-up a the con.

• $50 for a single full character (save $10 off the con rate)

• $130 for two characters on a page (save $20)

• 1 order per person

Ariel
(commission LBCC 2015)

Commission sketch specifications:

• An original drawing, inked colored with pencils.

• 9in. x 12in. Bristol Board.

• Payment made at time of pick-up at Long Beach Comic Con.

• Content and themes of commission to conform to the same guidelines of a family-friendly con.

• I reserve the right to refuse commissions.

If you’re attending the con and are interested, then please contact me either here in the comments below, via Facebook or email me at bryanlmon@yahoo.com

L B C N U!